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USD Law School Med School host convocation ceremonies

VERMILLION, S.D. -- The University of South Dakota’s 122nd Spring Commencement at the DakotaDome on May 9 will be preceded by the USD School of Law’s Hooding Ceremony and the Sanford School of Medicine of The University of South Dakota’s Graduation Convocation. Both of these events are scheduled for Friday, May 8.

Keynote speaker for the 2009 Hooding Ceremony, which is at 4 p.m. in the ballroom of the Muenster University Center at USD, is Justice Daryl L. Hecht of Sioux City, Iowa. Hecht was appointed to Iowa’s Supreme Court in 2006. A native of Lytton, Iowa, Hecht received his bachelor’s degree from Morningside College in 1974 and his J.D. degree from USD in 1977. He received his LL.M. in 2004 from the University of Virginia Law School. A past president of the Iowa Trial Lawyers Association, Hecht practiced law in Sioux City for 22 years before his appointment to the court of appeals in 1999.

South Dakota Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard will deliver the keynote address at the Sanford School of Medicine Graduation Convocation, which begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Reuben P. Jeschke Fine Arts Center at the University of Sioux Falls. Forty-nine students from 23 different hometowns across the state will receive their doctor of medicine degrees during the ceremony. Following the convocation, the School of Medicine Alumni Banquet will be at the Holiday Inn City Centre in Sioux Falls. The banquet will honor classes from 1959, 1984 and 2004.